Dec. 4 vote will determine future of new school for Dennis and Yarmouth

By Susan Vaughn

Monday

Dec 3, 2018 at 9:02 AM

Voters and town officials are lining up on both sides of the Dec. 4 ballot vote on constructing a new grades 4-7 school that would serve students in both towns of the Dennis-Yarmouth Regional School District.

The proposed new school, to be built adjacent to the Station Avenue Elementary School in South Yarmouth, would accommodate about 940 students. A consultant recommended building one intermediate school and closing both the Mattacheese Middle School in West Yarmouth and the Wixon School in South Dennis.

The election, with the same district ballot on the school question and separate town ballots for the funding, will be held from noon to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 4 at all the regular polling places in each town. Absentee voting will be until noon on Dec. 3 at each town clerk’s office.

The estimated total cost of the school is $116.9 million with 57 percent reimbursement for portions of the project coming from the Massachusetts School Building Authority, leaving the net debt share of $24.2 million for Dennis and $48.7 million for Yarmouth. The shares are based on the current regional agreement.

D-Y School Superintendent Carol Woodbury and former and present Dennis selectmen gave strong arguments at the selectmen’s meeting Tuesday in support of the school while Dennis finance committee chairman James Plath presented the committee’s unanimous vote to reject it. Several Yarmouth selectmen have previously spoken against the school proposal saying the towns should reach a new regional agreement before any plan for a new school goes forward. The Yarmouth selectmen want Dennis to pay more of the costs of the regional school district.

Woodbury spoke in Dennis to clarify some issues that she said are being discussed on social media sites. She explained the difficult process to get funding approvals from the state. Reimbursement for renovations to both the Mattacheese Middle School in West Yarmouth and the Wixon School in South Dennis began as separate applications in 2011 and subsequent attempts were turned down each year until 2018 when the building authority said it would consider the application if the two schools were put together. The grant was approved for almost $45.3 million.

“The money is already set aside,” Woodbury said. “If we don’t take it, it will go to another district. Here’s a chance to get back what we pay in sales tax.” If the vote fails, the district will have 120 days to reconfigure the plan, but that could mean delaying the construction for another year, she said.

The scheduled completion date if this plan passes would be June 25, 2021. If the school is delayed, construction costs would go up about 5 percent a year, or $5.89 million, Woodbury said.

Many public meetings on the school plan have been held where parents and grandparents have expressed their support, Woodbury said. “Parents like the campus feel and the opportunities for mentors. It makes a lot of sense to a lot of people,” she said.

Cleon Turner, a former Dennis selectman and a former school building committee, agreed that the school would cost a lot, but he said, “There is nothing that defines a community better than education. It invites people to come and stay in the community.” An up-to-date 4-7 school would “make students proud to go to school,” he said.

All members of the school building committee voted to support the new school, Turner said, including Yarmouth Selectman Chairman Norman Holcomb and Yarmouth Town Administrator Dan Knapik. “They were not opposed to the building, just what the agreement states,” he said.

Responding to some complaints about the choice of a ballot instead of a town meeting vote, Turner said it would be difficult to get the needed two-thirds vote from each town required at town meeting. He said the combined school also makes more sense economically as it would cost more to build separate schools and provide the same quality programs.

Former Dennis selectman Wayne Bergeron, who also taught for 34 years in the district, spoke of a community’s obligation to educate its children, the importance of a school’s appearance and he said a new school might even convince some families to keep their children in the district. “It’s our shot. We can’t afford to wait eight or nine years,” he said.

Plath spoke on behalf of the finance committee, pointing out other capital projects the town is facing, such as a senior center addition, the Cape Cod Regional Technical School construction, a new fire station and future wastewater projects. “There’s a lot of liability out there,” he said. He said the wastewater projects could increase the average taxpayer’s rate by $1,000 a year.

Plath also took issue with Selectwoman Sheryl McMahon’s contention that several capital debts will be retiring before the school payments start in five years. He said that total debt of $260,000 would not equal the $6.2 million that will be added.

Plath said the finance committee respects the work of the building committee but that it has to look at how it fits into the current and future financial obligations.

The committee also faulted the selectmen for not addressing potential additional expenses of millions for keeping, demolishing or relocating the Wixon and Baker schools.

The committee suggested “at least some type of game plan” as prudent financial planning. Its final objection was that the vote was not held under the traditional public forum of town meeting.

McMahon said the new school tax implications for the average Dennis homeowner would be $103 the first year of the 30-year financing. She said consideration for voting should not be based on other things. “Consider the cost now. It will just be more later,” she said. She also noted that Yarmouth and Dennis had previously agreed to regionalize grades 4 through 12.

Selectman Chris Flanagan said he is an advocate for the school because it will be built for energy efficiency and for safety.

“Building is the right thing to do. Consolidation is a good thing to do,” Selectmen Chairman Paul McCormick said, urging a vote for the new school. “Each generation has to pay for what comes behind.”

School building committee chairman Joe Tierney said in an email the district can’t take a position on a vote due to voting laws but he said there is a large group of parents and citizens involved in promoting the school vote. A Building Question Committee has a website, dynewschoolbuilding.com, where voters can get information. Woodbury is having a coffee session for interested voters at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Hearth and Kettle in South Yarmouth.

The Yarmouth town website (www.yarmouth.ma.us) also has financing information on its homepage under News Flash, Mattacheese School, which shows the estimated annual tax for a Yarmouth median household of $293,000 would be $187.90. Both town clerk’s websites also list the full ballot questions.

The vote

At the polls, voters will be asked to cast ballots on two questions.

One seeks approval for the vote of the D-Y school committee to authorize the borrowing of $116,978,831 to pay for a new intermediate school. The second question seeks to exempt the cost from the provisions of proposition 2 1/2.